The proposed changes (ALL EDITS IN BOLD) are intended to preserve the Section 230 protections ONLY to those platforms that ae willing to act as a “Public Square”.
§230. Protection for private blocking and screening of offensive material
(a) Findings
The Congress finds the following:
(1) The rapidly developing array of Internet and other interactive computer services available to individual Americans represent an extraordinary advance in the availability of educational and informational resources to our citizens.
(2) These services offer users a great degree of control over the information that they receive, as well as the potential for even greater control in the future as technology develops.
(3) The Internet and other interactive computer services offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse, unique opportunities for cultural development, and myriad avenues for intellectual activity.
(4) The Internet and other interactive computer services have flourished, to the benefit of all Americans, with a minimum of government regulation.
(5) Increasingly Americans are relying on interactive media for a variety of political, educational, cultural, and entertainment services.
(6) increasingly Interactive computer service providers have been shown to moderate, curate, and control speech on these platforms in ways that abridge the freedom of speech that Congress intended to occur in these modern “public squares”.
(b) Policy
It is the policy of the United States-
(1) to promote the continued development of the Internet and other interactive computer services and other interactive media;
(2) to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation;
(3) to encourage the development of technologies which maximize user control over what information is received by individuals, families, and schools who use the Internet and other interactive computer services;
(4) to remove disincentives for the development and utilization of blocking and filtering technologies that empower parents to restrict their children’s access to objectionable or inappropriate online material; and
(5) to ensure vigorous enforcement of Federal criminal laws to deter and punish trafficking in obscenity, stalking, and harassment by means of computer; and
(6) to prevent corporate bias or control of the “modern public square” through the use of moderation and Terms of Service amounting to Federally condoned viewpoint censorship.
(c) Protection for “Good Samaritan” blocking and screening of offensive material
(1) Treatment of publisher or speaker:
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider, provided:
- the provider does NOT moderate or curate the feeds so as to boost or suppress particular stories, trends, or lines of discourse; and/or
- The provider does not delete, suspend, ban, or otherwise curtail the speech of an information content provider except where the content is in violation of State or Federal Law; whereas
- Content that violates Federal Law may be suspended or otherwise “hidden”, until such time as the content provider may challenge the asserted violation of law; or
- Content that violates State Law may be suspended or otherwise “hidden”, but only to viewers of the respective State whose law has purportedly been violated, until such time as the content provider may challenge the asserted violation of law.
(2) Civil liability
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of-
(A) any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be in violation of Federal or State law; or
(B) any action taken to enable or make available to information content providers or others the technical means to restrict access to material described in paragraph (1).